


Bambi-Eyes: Together We Stand

by Holmesz



Series: Bambi-Eyes [2]
Category: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, High School, M/M, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-31 22:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10908393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holmesz/pseuds/Holmesz
Summary: Johnny and Penny deal with everyone's reaction to their relationship.





	Bambi-Eyes: Together We Stand

**Author's Note:**

> Now a series 'Bambi-Eyes'  
> Warning there is more angst in this story and people (high school teenagers & the media) are asses in this instalment. Nothing to bad I think but a warning to reader none-the-less.  
> Not Beta read so all mistakes are mine.

_Meet the In-Laws_

Johnny could do this.

He has faced an army of Doombots and flow into space with no training, He has run headfirst into possibly life ending situation without so much as a second thought.

He was LITUERALY made of fire!

So there was no reason why he should be so scared to walk up a few steps and knock on a door.

It was just a door, a door to his Girlfriend house.

Where he was going to meet her family for the first time, it was no big deal.

Really it was no big-

“Are you going to knock anytime soon Flame brain? Or should we put the back casserole in the oven?”

And there was Penny leaning out the open window, hair slightly windswept and an amused smile on her lips.

Yep Johnny could so do this.

_Parental Approval_

Johnny could _not_ do this.

The dinner had been nice, the talk was easy and May and Ben Parker seemed happy to trust the niece word that he was a nice guy over the tabloids that wrote Johnny up as a young hothead.

Dinner had been eaten, desert was shared and now May and Penny; at Mays insistence, were in the kitchen washing the dishes and Johnny had gone with Ben to sit down. He should have seen the trap coming.

Because now he was sitting in silence across the room from a very still, very stern looking farther figure and Johnny can honestly say he had never been this scared facing anyone; not even Doom.

Where was that guy when you needed him?

“Penny has never had a boyfriend before.”

Johnny felt himself twitch. This was not what he was expecting.

“Never shown an interest in them either, or in girls for that matter, so imagine our surprise when she told us she wanted to invite her boyfriend over for dinner and said boyfriend just so happened to be _the_ Johnny Storm. The kid said to be the next big playboy in the making.”

Johnny could feel his very soul shrivel up into a tiny ball. This was it. They did not want him seeing their niece. They were going to tell him to leave and never contact her again, because he was not good enough for her and they were right too, Johnny had always known that.

“Needless to say May and I were not impressed but Penny had always been smart, always had a good head on her shoulders. So we decided to give you a chance.”

Johnny risked looking at the older males face, he was smiling slightly, and he almost seemed found.

“You are a lot more than the media says you are, more then you let them see. You are a good person Johnny Storm and at the end of the day that is all we want her.”

Johnny felt a warmth not even his flames could give him settle in his chest.

_Watch & Learn_

“Reed it’s time for dinner!”

“Hmm.”

“Penny, babe come on, you have been in here all day.”

“Mm-hm.”

Johnny was just about ready to rip his hair out, his only comfort being Sue looked to be in a similar state. They had been trying; unsuccessfully to draw out their science obsessed partners from the lab for the last half an hour and were running out of both tricks and patience. Johnny was sure he had sprouted his first grey hair at some point.

They had tried asking nicely and then reminding them when they thought the two might have forgotten. Then came the bribing and the gentle coxing; nothing. Now they were just yelling (Sue) and out right begging (Johnny).

Nada.

“Substance and rest at regular intervals is required to maintain maximum brain function. Lacking in these two area could result in a loss of work efficacy and increase the risk of variables in your experiments thus resulting in unreliable data.”

Johnny watched in wide-eyed amazement as both Penny and Reed suddenly stopped what they were doing and place their tools on the nearest flat surface before hurrying out the lab to the dinner table, passing a pleased looking May Parker as they went.

“How did-?”

“I have spent the last decade getting my niece out of her binges and to the dinner table, I did the same thing for her parents before they passed so the two of them is no problem. If you both stick around I will teach you a thing or two.”

There was no doubt in Johnny’s mind that the world should worship May Parker.

_Caught_

It was TMN that broadcasted it first.

Johnny, having spent the last few weeks in his own little bubble with his new girlfriend and family members, had forgotten that he was still famous, he was still a hero and a celebrity and being all those things meant his private life stopped being private every time he walked out the front door.

_‘Heartthrob Johnny Storm Spotted With Newest Flame’_

He watch on feeling detached as the host went on about how Johnny apparently off the market (he was) and was spotted earlier that week holding hands with an unidentified girl.

Then there was the photos, five of them in total.

Johnny remembered that afternoon. It was a Wednesday and they had decided to go for a walk in the park after school instead of the both of them heading to their homes. They had thought the park had been deserted.

The first photo showed them walking together; Penny hoddie up and hiding her face their school bags at their sides, hands clearly entwined.

The second one was the two of them under the shade of a large tree, a pair of earphones shared between them.

The third shown Johnny mid laugh with his arm over Penny’s shoulders as he held her close.

But it was the last two that Johnny felt were the worst, the most invasive. It was not that Penny had her hood down and her face was clear in both photos; they had talked about it when they had first started dating and knew it would happen sooner or later, it was what they were doing.

In one photo Penny was holding one side of Johnny’s face as she kissed the opposite cheek.

In the other Johnny had Penny’s chin held in one hand as he kissed her forehead.

See the thing is Johnny has yet to kiss Penny on the lips.

They had been dating for a month and a half and they have not properly kissed. Yet Johnny did not feel as though their relationship was lacking anything because this was their thing, this was how they showed they cared, by cheek and forehead kisses.

And now was blood-sucking reporters had plastered their thing on the gossip channel for all the world to see.

 

_Media_

If TMN was bad then social media was worse.

Johnny had his phone taken off him by Sue within the first hour before he Flamed On and lost it.

For the most part people were either supportive or just did not seem to care-

_‘Awww so cute. It’s good to see the young hero in new romances. So adorable!!! ^3^’_

_‘So the kid got himself a new girl good for him but can someone please tell why this is considered the top story when there is a shootout going on down at the wharf this morning?’_

-but there was a group of people who Johnny sorely wished he could set on fire.

_‘He could have anyone. Why is he lowering himself to dating that nobody.’_

_‘Maybe he keeps her around because she’s good in bed?’_

Yep. Burn them extra crispy, but he can’t because he was a ‘hero’ and that’s not what they do. But more importantly it would upset Penny and Johnny did not want that.

He bit back a sigh. When the news had broken out about their relationship it had taken people less than five minutes to figure out Penny name because the pack of hyenas Johnny spent a stupid amount of time had blabbed and had done so _very_ loudly.

Now Sue and Ben were at the Parkers house to move them to the Baxter building until this all cooled down. There had apparently been a large group of reporters and photographers knocking on their door and windows asking for a picture or comment.

For the first time since he had gotten his powers Johnny wished he had a secret identity.

 

_Comfort_

“Do you want to break up?”

“What?”

“Do you want to stop going out? I will understand if you do, this is a rather horrible situation to be in just because you think a guy is cute or whatever. It does not mean you should have your privacy completely demolished-“

“Johnny.”

I mean I knew they would bother you when word first got out but this is so far beyond anything I could imagine between the T.V. and the internet, their all a bunch of soulless monsters for what they are saying about you and I get it if you-“

“Johnny.”

“-want to call this whole thing off and-“

“JOHNNY!”

“-Yes?”

“I don’t want to breakup. This whole situation was a nasty sock to the system but it’s happened now and all we can do is brace for the media storm until it all passes and the direct their attention elsewhere. I won’t lie, the things people are saying were getting to me but do you know what helped me out with that?”

Johnny shock his head.

“I had spent most of this morning reading the comments on Facebook and Tumblr and was one more negative comment from braking down in tears, what’s worse my boyfriend hadn’t called or text me so of course I was thinking he had finally gotten a clue and realised I was an gangly nerd with no beauty and he could so much better.”

He opened his mouth but was stopped when Penny raised her hand to stop him.

“Let me finish. So I was just about to break down and cry when Sue showed up with Ben and told me the reason that said boyfriend had not contacted me was because he had been band from any and all electronic devices out of fear that he will start a witch-hunt on the next person who said anything bad about me. It was a surprisingly effective way to cheer me up.”

Johnny suddenly found the carpet to be really fascinating; did it always have two different shades in it?

“I- Um well I didn’t like the lies people were spreading about you. You are so kind and smart and cute and all those people talking trash was pissing me off and-”

Johnny would never know how he went from attempting to comfort Penny to having her reassure him and he properly never will.

 

_Back-Up from the Unexpected_

School the following Monday had been; as Johnny had expected, horrible.

The Fantastic Four had; after speaking with the Parker family, released a statement stating that yes Johnny was indeed dating the girl in the photos, no there will be no interview and no they will be no further statements.

They will never admit to it but Johnny thinks the others got a little too much enjoyment not-so-suitably tell people that if anyone harasses the Parker family they will find themselves buried in lawsuits; Sue standing tall and unmoving on the podium, Reed with his lab looking every bit the mad scientist he tries to hide and Ben slowly bringing his rocky fist into the opposite palm every few seconds. And if Johnny let his fire jump from his shoulders every once-in-awhile well Sue did not say anything about so he figured it was fine.

And while that meant the Parkers could return without being mobbed it did not stop people at school from talking about it, staring at them and just being a real pain in the ass. The only good thing about today was that Penny got to see that she did have some genuine friend at school. Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy and MJ Watson had meet them at the front of the school to congratulate them on their statues as a couple (only complaining a little about not being told) and the proceeded to glue themselves to them to help fight off the rest of the school.

Though there had been on person he had not expected to have as back-up.

During break Johnny had been cornered by the football team before he could escape to the roof to be with Penny (and Harry, Gwen and MJ.) where the snickering leader had asked how good a lay ‘Puny Parker’ must be if he was willing to let people think he was dating her.

Johnny had been contemplating between setting the idiots pants on fire or going for a good old punch in the face when someone else’s fist had made the decision for him. Flash Thompson had stood to the side fist still raised and an expression like thunder on his face.

Johnny had never seen a group scatter so fast.

He invited Flash to eat lunch with his group.

 

_They ‘Ship It’_

Johnny has no idea when it started but sometime between one day and the next his friends seemed to have started a trend and all of New York was catching it.

An ‘I <3’ t-shirt with a single penny on fire.

Apparently noticing how the attention was affecting their friends the four of them had held a meeting after school. They could not stop people from talking (well Harry might be able to but his idea was shot down by the others) so they might as well have some fun with it.

Flash thought it up.

Harry supplied the materials.

MJ and Gwen designed and made them.

They wore their support all day and refused to take them off.

Flash wore his to football practice over his armour.

Gwen had hers under her lab coat in her Science Club meeting.

MJ had had put her on over her costume during play rehearsals in drama.

They had got the whole schools attention, but it was Harry who got everyone in New York watching when he posted a pitcher of him wearing the shirt on his Tumblr account with a short comment and only one hashtag.

_‘Haters gonna hate. Johnny Storm and Penny Parker are the cutest thing since puppies and kittens.’_

#flamingpenny

It went viral in seconds and it was now everywhere. Johnny had also seen dozens of those shirts beening worn be everyone from the average New Yorker to several high profiled stars and hero’s. Penny had squeaked when Tony Stark; her idol, hero and inspiration (If he was not old enough to be her dad Johnny might have felt threatened by the man) had been photo’d wearing one.

Johnny had also gotten the joy of watching Reed pout about not being her favourite scientist and tried with no luck to change her mind; come on Reed, its Iron Man.

Now they were all hanging out in Johnny’s room lounging around and eating Sue’s special cookies (having earned major point from her and the rest of Johnny’s team for the whole thing).

“You know you guys are the best friends anyone could ask for.”

“Because we started a fashion trend for you guys?” MJ asked from the floor where she was doing Gwen’s nails.

“Well yes but there is another reason.”

“Because we will pick a fight with anyone who starts talking shit about you two?” Flash called from next to Harry at the PlayStation.

Penny laughed from where she was laying with Johnny on his bed, comic book in hand.

“I think he is referring to the fact you guys started our very own hashtag for us.”

“Damn right. That right there is true friendship. You guys are the best!”

“Oh well I claim sixty percent responsibility for that.”

“Harry!”

**Author's Note:**

> This instalment was meant to be longer but I felt it was a good place to stop.  
> I will be continuing this as a sort of growing together as the two of them learn to be in a serious and stable relationship. If you have any suggestion or have something you want to see just leave me a comment.


End file.
